Chapter 38: Flaming desperation

A wall of fire roared to life along the western treeline, flames climbing fast as fuel-soaked branches caught and spread. The night recoiled from it—shadows ripped apart, darkness fleeing in jagged pieces as orange light tore through the woods.

The infected howled.

Not like animals.

Like something furious at being denied.

“Now!” I shouted.

The order tore out of me raw, final.

Rifles cracked in controlled bursts from elevated positions. Muzzle flashes stuttered like lightning. Bodies dropped in the firelight—infected stumbling, burning, collapsing into the dirt before they could close the distance.

There were more than a dozen— far more than what we’d seen earlier.

Yet they hadn’t expected this.

They’d learned our patterns. Our hesitation.

But not our desperation. My desperation.

I moved forward without waiting for cover.

An infected burst from the smoke to my left—half its body already on fire, skin sloughing as it ran anyway.

I fired quickly.

The shot punched through its skull, snapping its head back mid-stride. It hit the ground hard and didn’t get up.

Another came from the right.

Then another.

They weren’t spacing themselves anymore.

It seemed more like panic.

A smile cracked in my expression. My plan was working.

“Hold that line!” Hale barked from somewhere ahead of me. His rifle spoke again, sharp and precise. Every shot dropped something that stayed down.

A shape moved wrong through the flames.

Too upright.

Too deliberate.

Wait— what..?

He stepped out of the smoke with his weapon raised, face twisted into something almost smiling as chaos swallowed the camp behind us. Fire reflected in his red eyes.

There was another with a gun.

I didn’t think.

I ran.

Bullets cracked past me, snapping bark from trees, kicking dirt at my feet. Pain flared hot across my shoulder as something grazed me, but I didn’t slow.

He raised his gun again—

And Hale hit him.

Hard.

The impact sent the man sprawling, weapon skidding into the dirt. Hale was on him instantly, boot to wrist, rifle swinging down—

The man laughed.

Even then.

I reached them just as Hale hesitated for half a second— long enough for the man to grab at something on his belt.

What the fuck—?

“HALE—”

I tackled him sideways as the detonator went off.

The blast tore us apart.

Heat and force slammed into me like a living thing, crushing the air from my lungs as I was thrown backward. The ground vanished. The sky vanished. Everything collapsed into a violent white flash that swallowed sound and thought whole.

For a heartbeat, there was nothing.

Then came the ringing— high and merciless—drilling into my skull as I hit the dirt hard enough to rattle bone. The world lurched back in pieces: smoke clawing at my throat, grit scraping across my face, pain blooming everywhere at once without a clear source.

I tried to breathe and failed.

My chest burned. My limbs felt distant, heavy, like they belonged to someone else. Ash rained down, hot against my skin, sticking to sweat and blood as the smell of char and metal flooded my senses.

I blinked once.

Then again, harder.

When I could see again, the fireline was broken— but the infected weren’t advancing.

They were burning.

The armed man lay in pieces.

Hale was on one knee, coughing, blood running down his temple— but alive.

The treeline was gone.

Reduced to fire and ruin and blackened earth.

Nothing left to hide in.

The infected screamed as they burned or fell back into the dark, retreating for the first time since this all began.

Silence crept in behind the crackle of flames.

Not peace.

Aftermath.

People emerged slowly from cover. Some crying. Some laughing. Some staring.

The camp still stood.

But it was changed.

Hale pushed himself upright and looked at me. I met his gaze, pensive, exhausted. We were both thinking the same thing.

I barely turned around fully before a punch landed on my face.

“PETER!!” Jane’s voice cracked. I stumbled as Hale tackled him to the ground.

“IS THIS WHAT YOU FUCKING WANTED?!?!?” Peter shouted, tone viscous and scraping.

Blood coated my lip. Metallic, bitter. I touched it, tasting the chaos. Survivors moved around—Aubrey, Isabella, Terri. Others.

Lila approached, silent. I sighed, catching my balance, glancing back at Peter sobbing as Hale pummeled him.

“THIS PLACE AIN’T SAFE ANYMORE CAUSE OF YOU!!!” he shouted between sobs.

“Can it.” Hale cut in, delivering another punch to his bruised cheek.

Don’t you think I know that?

I rubbed my eyes. Tasted my own blood. My chest ached, every muscle screaming.

Lila’s arms wrapped around me without warning.

The impact almost knocked me off my feet. I staggered, boots scraping ash and dirt, breath leaving me in a sharp exhale. For a second I thought I might fall.

I didn’t.

Not because I was strong— but because she was holding me up.

I didn’t push her away. I didn’t have it in me. Every muscle felt hollowed out, like the fight had burned straight through me and left nothing behind. Letting go would’ve taken more effort than staying.

Her grip slid into my hair, fingers threading tight, anchoring. Protective. Possessive. Familiar in a way that set my nerves on edge. It might’ve been comforting— almost— if my mind hadn’t betrayed me with the memory of a gunshot and the way she hadn’t hesitated.

Through the smoke and dying firelight, I caught Aubrey’s gaze.

She stood still, face half-lit, half-shadowed. Dark. Closed. Watching me like she was measuring something she didn’t want the answer to. Her fingers lifted, picking once at the corner of her eye.

Then she turned away and walked off.

Something in my chest tightened.

Lila pulled back just enough to look at me. Her hands came up to my face, thumbs brushing dirt and blood from my cheek, her touch careful now— searching. Counting injuries. Making sure I was still here.

I flinched once, barely.

She noticed.

Of course she did.

But she didn’t stop. Just adjusted, softer, like that meant something.

I let her.

I could feel eyes on us. Hale’s, steady and unreadable. Others too. Watching. Weighing. Deciding what this meant. Whether this was comfort… or a warning.

They all knew.

They knew what she’d done before this. The gunshot. The choice. The way things had shifted because of it.

There was no pretending otherwise now.

Something twisted low in my chest— not pain exactly. Fatigue. Relief. And something sharper, more dangerous, cutting through both.

When her hand slid down and found mine, fingers curling like she expected me to stay, I pulled away.

Gently.

Almost regretfully.

Her hand lingered in the space between us for half a second before falling. Her frown darkened, subtle but unmistakable.

The fire still burned behind us. Smoke drifted. Ash settled on everything. But for a heartbeat, nothing else existed—just the chaos, the pain, and us.

I spat my own blood on the grass, before clearing my throat.

The sound barely carried over the crackle of fire, but the movement did. Heads turned. Slowly. Reluctantly. Like they were afraid of what I’d say next.

Smoke rolled between us in lazy coils. Ash drifted down, settling on shoulders, hair, open wounds. The camp stood—but it stood naked now. No treeline. No dark corners to hide our mistakes in.

“Listen,” I said.

My voice sounded wrong to my own ears. Too calm. Too tired.

“This place—” I gestured vaguely around us, at the scorched earth, the broken perimeter, the bodies already being dragged away. “— it isn’t safe anymore.”

A ripple moved through the crowd. Not panic. Recognition.

“They slipped through tonight,” I continued. “Not because you people were weak. Not because we weren’t trying hard enough.” My jaw tightened. “But because we stayed still.”

Murmurs rose. Low. Uneasy.

I saw them then— the dyed hair. The nose rings. The nervous faces. The ones who’d believed this could last. Peacemakers. Optimists. The ones who thought routine was the same thing as security.

No hippie could survive what was out there.

“They’re learning,” I said. “Every night you stay here, they learn more. Your routes. Your habits. Your mercy.”

Cherie leaned against a post near the edge of the firelight, arms crossed, smirk faint but knowing.

Lila stood a few steps away from me now, arms folded tight across her chest. Her eyes never left my face.

Peter groaned somewhere behind us, still pinned to the dirt, pain wracking his body in ugly, shuddering sobs. No one looked at him.

“This should be obvious,” I said. “If you stay— more of you will die.”

Silence fell. Heavy. Absolute.

I let it.

“The only way we survive,” I continued, “is if we stop pretending there’s safety in staying put.”

I inhaled, the smoke burning my lungs.

“We move.”

A few heads snapped up. Someone whispered something sharp and fearful. Someone else laughed once, breathless and disbelieving.

“Tomorrow,” I said, louder now. Firmer. “We leave.”

The murmurs swelled, anxiety threading through them like static.

“My people and I are heading south,” I went on. “Texas.”

“To find answers,” I finished. “To find out what the hell even started this.”

I met their eyes one by one.

Some didn’t look away. Some couldn’t hold my gaze for more than a second. Fear sat differently on everyone’s face— tight-jawed, wide-eyed, hollow, angry.

Aubrey wasn’t there anymore.

I noticed the absence before I consciously looked for her.

Isabella stood near Jane, the fire highlighting her red hair. Hale watched me without expression, arms folded, already calculating.

“And maybe—…a solution.”

That did it.

Voices overlapped. Questions. Protests. Hope tangled with dread.

“If you stay,” I said quietly, “I won’t stop you.”

The camp stilled again.

“But if you come with us,” I continued, “you follow orders. You move when we move. And you don’t hesitate when it matters.”

No cheers.

No speeches.

Just the fire crackling behind me and the weight of a choice settling into everyone’s bones.

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